The Young and the Digital

As far as I can tell, there's not much new in this book, but it is a lot of useful info packaged in a very readable way. I was happy to see a reference to Everett M. Rogers (p 173) on the diffusion of new media. The discussion of MySpace vs. Facebook got a little tiresome when there are so many more interesting ideas. The most interesting discussion there is the apparent "ghettoization" of MySpace. I;'m sure the initial .edu extension requirement contributed that perception. What I am wondering is whether another social online network like Linkedin will supersede FB as college age users become professionals. I already see a lot more Linkedin use among recent graduates from my CSP program cohort.

Several points Watkins makes are important. First, he discusses the concept of digital gating (p xx), maintaining and protecting social status by limiting or discouraging less desirable people's entrance into an online community. Communication theory has long been fascinated by "gatekeepers" and digital gating is only another version of this. This concept fits very well with the idea of media as creating either "bridging" or "bonding" social capital (p 95). However, I don't think that these actions are exclusive of each other and may depend on the user's age or purpose in using the media. Tweens and teens yearn to be part of in-groups so it would seem likely that most of their online activity would involve bonding and gating because there can't be an in-group unless some are kept out. On the other hand, as people move outside their hometowns to college and jobs, they need to make new contacts with more kinds of people in their personal and professional lives. Therefore, it would be logical to see them engage in more bridging activities.

According to Watkins, bonding activities also have different levels. In referencing the Michigan State study (p 68-69), he suggests that those more ephemeral or weak social ties are more likely to be reinforced rather than abandoned because social media sites make it easier to continue them than previously. Researchers also refer to these types of minimal contacts as "phatic interactions" (p 71) that maintain contact through brief exchanges like those on FB. As an older adult user, I also see these kinds of phatic communications used in reconnecting with past friends, Since I have been on FB, I have reconnected with at least a dozen people with whom I have not been in touch for twenty years or more.

Finally, the purpose with which people use media changes and affects the media itself. TV was a passive medium and when interactive TV came out on QUBE in the 1970's, it failed because people did not want to talk to their TVs. Now they don't only want to interact with videos, they want to post their own and comment on others' postings. So two different purposes led to two different forms of media. A better example of this is the early days of radio. Because radio technology came BEFORE commercial programming, everyone was originally both a broadcaster and a listener, much like computers today. Once commercial programming took over and federal licensing came in, radio moved from being an active to a passive medium. Watkins discusses the growth of YouTube and Flickr. Today, social media are still in the active phase, but will this change?